Lauri Maerov, my friend, writer, and co-facilitator for the Create Your Vision 2010 Playshop, and I were so pleased with the way we combined the process of making SoulCollage cards and vision boards that we are wanting to collaborate again in the future. (She will soon have a blog with her own creative visions and musings.) Seven wonderful women came to the playshop and spun their magic, dreaming and manifesting powerful, soulful visions, and making a beautiful web of connections between us by the fire--creative alchemy.

I spent the snowed-in weekend before it making my vision board for 2010 a little different, with elements of SoulCollage--light on words and text, heavier on signs and symbols--creating an interactive mandala or wheel.

The first tarot card I drew on the New Year's Eve full moon was the Wheel of Fortune, so I decided to fashion a multi-layered circle, with the 12 tarot cards I drew for each of the full moons placed in each of the 12 houses of the zodiac, with their attendant meanings. I am also viewing this as a medicine wheel, with the animals placed in the four directions: Eagle in the east, the place of Spirit, discovery and enlightenment (the eternal); Coyote in the south, the place of the warrior, protector of the children and innocence (the past); Bear in the west, the place of death and rebirth and the sacred feminine (the present); Buffalo in the north, the place of wisdom, manifestation and the Creator (the future). The three-phase moon wheel in the center can be rotated to show my progression around the wheel with each month's full moon (coming up on Feb. 27, the weekend I am facilitating a weekend retreat for women called "Crowning the Crone--Embracing the Inner Wise Woman").

I plan to use my vision board in an interactive way throughout the year. The tags in the envelope in the right hand corner have written on them the meanings of each of the 12 astrological houses as well as the reading for the individual tarot card I drew for each month. At the same time, I placed images or symbols of what I want to manifest in each of the 12 sections of the wheel and will add more during the year as I continue to create and envision what I want to manifest, month by month.

My word for the year is TRUST, but as you can see, I have also added three other important words for this year: love, gratitude and transform. In a year that started out with a devastating earthquake in Haiti in which people with very little have experienced so much loss, I feel such love for humanity, and what we are capable of when we see others in need. At the same time, I feel intense gratitude for what I have, especially my family and friends, and I want to remain in this state throughout the year, an antidote to these often depressing economic times. "Transform" is what I hope to do with regard to my work, bringing in more feminine consciousness and creative expression. And, there is a little message on my board from Eckhart Tolle: If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. So simple, and yet so profound. How do I choose peace each day in every situation in which potential conflict or unease arises? And there are a few hidden messages for myself under the buffalo card flap made by my dear friend, Pixie, she of the magical Animama totem art (she also created the coyote card at the bottom).

Blogging sister, Dee Mallon, asked, "What methods do YOU use to investigate and release negative patterns?" and references Byron Katie, another favorite Truth Seeker and Truth Teller like Eckhart Tolle. This vision board is going to be one of my methods as I chart my progress around the wheel this year, looking for the lessons and learning from my mistakes. I also love making shrines to the Sacred Feminine and creating SoulCollage. I'm going to be delving more into the wisdom of the goddesses and the divine feminine this year. I want to connect more with the triple goddess within--the maiden, mother and crone--whom we can all call upon at any time to help us understand a problem and arrive at a new perspective--ancient feminine wisdom. Just how we can go about doing that will be what my new project is all about. More to be revealed.

Hence my latest SoulCollage card, "The Mystery": I am one who enjoys the mystery, what lies beneath the surface, soon to be revealed, tantalizing us with possibilities, tempting us with fate, awakening us with dreams. I walk fearlessly through the door into the light of discovery, into the Unknown. I am safe. All will be revealed."

And I ask you: How will you manifest your dreams and visions for 2010? I'd love to see your vision boards. Send links!